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It has finally happened! Invicta FC has also been bitten by the Interim title bug! The fight will feature none other than Megan Anderson who will come up against Charmaine Tweet. What is on the line, you ask? well, the winner will be crowned the new interim featherweight champion!

If is going to be a feat that you simply should not miss! Invicta FC 21 is scheduled to occur on January 14th so mark your calendars and get your bets in! The headline fight between these two elite female athletes will be brought to you live from Kansas City, Missouri.

The fight could go into as many as five rounds, and if both fighters are still standing, then it will go to the judges for decision. You may be wondering why the title of featherweight champion is being prepended with the word “interim”. The reason for that is because the current featherweight champion of Invicta is Cris Cyborg who is, at this time, serving a one year suspension after having failed a USADA drug test which took place in the recent past.

Let’s take a brief look at the two fighters. Anderson (7 – 2), on one hand, is one of Invicta’s most promising and upcoming talents and she comes from the land down under. The Australian is no stranger to victory especially via knock out. She has won three straight all body knock outs and her most recent fight was against Peggy Morgan whom she knocked out in the very first round. To say that she will be confident going into Invicta FC 21 is an understatement.

On the other hand, we have Tweet who also won in a flamboyant manner her last time out when she knocked out Latoya Walker with a splendid spinning back fist.

 

These two fighters are no strangers to each other. Don’t be mistaken, it does not mean that they are friends that go way back. What it means is that the two fighters have constantly been on each other’s backs in media interviews leading up to this fight which is exactly what spices a fight up and sells it. Thanks to the obvious personal friction between the two fighters, the fight is highly anticipated amongst fans all over the globe.

Cruz has been alleging that Garbrandt has concussion problems while on the other hand, Garbrandt insists that Cruz makes such allegations simply because he is just worried about his own insecurities and is trying to divert attention this way.

Cruz comes into this fight on the back on an immaculate 13 – match winning streak and should therefore be heavily confident, despite Garbrandt’s remarks about his insecurities. The last time Cruz was defeated was way back in 2007 when he came up against Urijah Faber. Cruz did get an opportunity to set the record straight against Faber and he did just that when he beat Faber at UFC 199 back in July.

Garbrandt is also undefeated in his own right and should be equally as confident. He has, however, not come up against a fighter of Cruz’s caliber thus far and so we think that this fight will end with Cruz winning via unanimous decision.

Amanda Nunes Vs. Ronda Rousey

This illustrious fight is the main event of the night and all eyes will be on Ronda Rousey as she makes her return to the octagon for the first time since being shockingly defeated by Holly Holm.

Nunes is not going to take it lying down! Her last outing was a victory against Miesha Tate and Nunes has proved herself in the past by taking down renowned fighters such as Sara McMann and Valentina Shevchenko.

Having said that, we cannot foresee Rousey losing consecutive fights, especially considering her perfect record up until the loss to Holly Holm. Nunes will certainly make things as competitive as possible, but our pick is still Rousey and by technical knockout.

Dillashaw was eager to fight Dominick Cruz once again, but unfortunately for him, that is not going to happen. Instead he will be handed an opportunity to take out his frustration on John Lineker who has been enjoying an immaculate run in the UFC so far.

Dillashaw has been beating himself up ever since he lost to Cruz in the title fight for the bantamweight title back in January. Dillashaw has been explosive since then. He responded to the defeat strongly by clinching a victory against Raphael Assuncao in January at UFC 200.

Dillashaw really made a name for himself when he, against all odds, beat Renan Barao in UFC 173 in 2014. It was this fight that put Dillashaw on the charts as a fighter and a force to be reckoned with in the competition. He beat Barao in the fifth round via a technical knockout in a fight which till date is renowned as one of the most shocking and unexpected results in the history of the UFC.

Dillashaw will be a strong favorite when he comes up against Lineker. Lineker will be brimming with confidence given the fact that he will be going into this fight on the back of six straight victories. However, we don’t think that just confidence is enough to beat Dillashaw. Our pick for this fight? Dillashaw via submission.

Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum

UFC 188 saw these two have a go at each other in which Werdum emerged victorious via a submission in the third round. However, this rematch has been on the cards for a while and it finally going to actually transpire.

Velasquez will be fueled by vengeance here and going by his victory against Travis Browne (whom he knocked out in round one), he is hungry and we will pick him to win via decision.

Johnny Hendricks will be looking to Magny to cut him some slack and be the guy that gets beaten. Hendricks has been poor recently considering his usual standards and he is going to come out all guns blazing in a hail Mary attempt to turn his form around 180 degrees. Of his last four fights, he has lost three. He lost to Robbie Lawler who he had actually beaten to claim the welterweight title in UFC 171, he lost to Stephen Thompson via technical knockout even though he was favorite and then when everyone thought he would make a comeback against Kelvin Gastelum, the judges favored Gastelum by unanimous decision. Hendricks has let his poor form go on for too long now and will be desperate for change and a victory.

However, irrespective of how badly Hendricks wants it, Magny is not going to make things easy for Hendricks. Magny might have lost his last outing, but has been in stellar form otherwise especially when you look at his last 11 bouts – of which he won a staggering ten.

With both fighters trying to get back to winning ways, it may be a close call, but for now we are convinced that Hendricks has more hunger, desire and impetus and will take this one via a decision.

Ray Borg vs. Louis Smolka

This fight will be the opener of the main card since the UFC were not able to find a replacement for Maryna Moroz against Jessica Andrade.

However, Borg vs. Smolka should be equally as nail biting as both fighters have been impressive in their own ways and both have actually lost their most recent outings.

It is going to be a highly contested fight which might go into late rounds, but our pick here would be Smolka by decision.   

This is a fight which seems promising on paper and we are pretty certain it is going to turn out to be a rather exciting vie in real life too. The Brazilian Carlos Junior will be taking on Italian Marvin Vettori. Junior does not exactly have a track record which speaks for itself and has been rather inconsistent in his past fights, but at the same time we cannot deny that he has shown flashes of technical brilliance and also simply brute force. He rose to the lime light back in 2014 when he was crowned the champion of “Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” in its third only season. He had beaten none other than Vitor Miranda in the title bout.

The Italian, Vettori, is not as well known and is still a newcomer to the UFC. He too rose to fame in Italy’s very own Venator where he proved to be rather successful. He made his UFC debut against Alberto Uda and was able to clinch a victory in his very first fight. He has a mean guillotine choke.

Vettori has been pitted by an underdog going into this fight, but we might have to disagree with the bookies on this one. His fighting style when keenly observed will tell you that he has a certain advantage especially when he comes up against fighters such as Junior. We would pick Vettori to win via submission.

Dong Hyun Kim Vs. Tarec Saffiedine

Kim comes into the fight as a replacement for Matt Brown after Brown was pulled into a fight against Donald Cerrone instead. However, we still don’t see Saffiedine winning this one. Kim is coming out of a good rest period and will be in peak physical shape and should be able to nick this one via submission.  

Garcia lost his last time out in the octagon when he was beaten by  Sean Strickland via a technical knock – out and it is fair to say that Strickland’s victory was well deserved and Garcia knows it. He was bullied around from the start as Strickland looked in complete control. This means Garcia would have beaten himself up for the loss, watched the tapes umpteen number of times, figured out where and how we went wrong and trained immensely to void his short comings. Garica will be hungry to prove himself when he comes up against Mike Pyle in the near future.

Pyle, on the other hand, is a 41 – year old fighter who has not been in the greatest of form recently either. Going back to his last six fights, he lost four of them out of which three were knock outs. That is certainly not a record any fighter would be proud of.

Therefore, despite Garcia’s submissive outing the last time around, he is still going into this fight a strong favorite and this is great chance for him to prove his mettle and gain back his confidence. He will be looking to add himself to the list of people that have knocked out Pyle. As far as Pyle is considered, if does happen to get knocked out again, we would think that it is time for him to pick up a new hobby.

Having said that, we must not disregard the experience that Pyle has. He could actually surprise everyone. If Garcia is over confident always on the front foot without much concern about defense, then Pyle may just be able to sneak in a knock out himself.   Even though it sounds plausible, we just cannot see it fabricating in real life, we would go with Garcia to win by knock out.